The Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences acknowledges Australia’s First Nations Peoples as the Traditional Owners and Custodians of the land and gives respect to the Elders – past and present – and through them to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are advised that the MAAS website contains a range of material which may be culturally sensitive including records of people who may have passed away.

Pills and Potions

Pills and potions was all about the changing role of chemists, their shops and their wares. Visitors were able to see a chemist at work in an 1880s dispensary and look at the range of ads that chemists used in the 1930s to sell their products.

You could also find out about old-fashioned remedies on a computer interactive and hear about the evils of constipation!

The 1880s dispensary

Chemists worked in the dispensary, making pills, powders and mixtures from pharmaceutical manuals as well as their own remedies. Customers could not see inside this area. But the visitor to this exhibition was able to see the tools that would have been used.